News and In Focus articles

Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger of Disappearing now online

After two paper versions of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger of Disappearing (1996 and 2001), the information collected on a large number of endangered languages in all parts of the world will now be available online, starting with the map of the African continent.

This online edition has been developed in the framework of UNESCO's Endangered Languages and Multilingualism in Cyberspace Programmes.

The online Atlas aims to reach a wider public, to raise awareness about the fragile linguistic diversity in the world, to promote multilingualism on the Internet and to help the speakers of endangered languages to preserve them.

The information will regularly be updated, and information on other languages can be added using research data and information coming from speaker communities, linguists and other specialists. Researchers and native speakers all over the world are invited to comment on the existing information and to make available their research results for the users of the online Atlas.

The Atlas will alos be presented at the two-day conference on "Multilingualism for Cultural Diversity and Participation of All in Cyberspace" that opens today in Mali's capital Bamako. It is organized by the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN), the Agence Intergouvernementale de la Francophonie (AIF) and the Government of Mali.